Here is proof that Hypnobirthing can be of great benefit, whatever turn your birthing takes… “I was just on 36 weeks pregnant and had had some raised blood pressure readings for a few days so had some blood tests done and on Friday 27th returned to the doctor for the results. I have a history of hypertension so it was something we’d been waiting to happen, in a sense, through my whole pregnancy. Unfortunately when we saw the doctor that day he gently indicated that my test results were concerning, and combined with my blood pressure readings, it looked as though I had pre-eclampsia and he advised we needed to induce labour that night. It was a massive shock and things got more serious when I was admitted (I didn’t even get to go home!) and the midwife there indicated our baby would most likely need to spend some time in the special care nursery. The midwives were all very kind and understanding but we were nevertheless hoping that the baby would come out perfectly healthy and would be able to go home with us… I had the prostaglandin gel inserted that night and began contracting overnight; the doctor was able to do ARM the following morning, and then I was immediately put onto an oxytocin drip. The whole time we were questioning what was happening as it was all just so contrary to what we had planned through Hypnobirthing and our general expectations of how it would go. However it was clear that since my body simply wasn’t ready for labour but there was no question of the need to induce labour, this was what had to happen. From the time I was admitted to hospital we put in place the techniques we’d been working on through Hypnobirthing including ” Joe reading scripts particularly the glove relaxation and the short deepening practice to help me back into relaxation; playing our music; the use of colour (I chose purple so had a big purple throw up on the wall opposite my bed and wore a purple dress during labour); aromatherapy; and the breathing. I was able to go about six hours on the oxytocin drip using these techniques particularly the breathing and was briefly mollified when a new nurse came into the room at one point and commented that ‘you wouldn’t know she was having a contraction’ ” just as we’d seen through your classes :). Every time I felt a surge come on it felt like I was taken out of myself and put my head down, closed my eyes and breathed counting up to 15 and back down. I have to say everyone at the hospital (North West) was very supportive and interested in the techniques and gave us every chance to have a natural labour. Between 1-2pm the midwives attempted to increase the dosage of my oxy drip significantly and unfortunately at that point things became too much ” I had six contractions (I am saying contractions since there was nothing natural about them) in seven minutes without a break and they started becoming too strong for me to cope with, given I wasn’t able to move around, or go in the shower or the bath or anything, and I had canulas and EFMs and machines everywhere, plus the baby was posterior. At that point I said I was considering an epidural, and the midwife agreed that my best chance of a vaginal birth would be to have some pain relief to enable them to increase the dosage of oxytocin to ensure I was contracting ‘sufficiently’ (i.e. four contractions in ten minutes). Again, I used the deep breathing and Joe read me the deepening script just before the epidural was put in to enable me to calm down as I was quite scared having it done. Once I had the epi I was at least able to get some rest and continue to practice my deep breathing through each contraction (I maintained some feeling in my uterus so was able to feel when I was having one). At around 6pm the midwife checked and advised I was five centimetres… the doctor came shortly afterwards and I was concerned he was going to recommend a c-section given I had only got to 5 despite having been on the drip for around 10 hours. Luckily he was quite happy to wait given the baby had a strong heartbeat and I was doing ok. Around an hour later the lovely midwife said she was a little concerned about the baby’s heart rate and wanted to put a trace on its head to ensure the readings she was getting were correct. Once she went to do that, however, she looked at me and said ‘you’re about to have a baby’. Stupid me thought she meant I had to go straight up to theatre for a c-section or something ” but she meant the head was right at the entrance of my vagina and it was time to get him out. Unfortunately given the whole situation I wasn’t able to breathe the baby down and took the advice of the midwives in pushing him out. It was hard work compared to how I remembered the Hypnobirthing videos. However he came quite quickly and all at once. Asher was 2.57kg, around 48cm long, and healthy for a premmie ” he got Apgar scores of 9 which I thought was pretty impressive! Luckily he was well enough that the paediatrician was happy for him to stay with us so we had a lovely long cuddle and bonding time, with a brief break after about half an hour for him to be weighed etc. We had lots of skin to skin and he did breastfeed after about 2 hours and with some assistance from a midwife. Anyway, he’s now been home for over two weeks and has put on heaps of weight (he was over 3kg when I weighed him on Friday) and is eating, sleeping and pooing like a normal bub. He’s letting us get a reasonable amount of sleep too (i.e. waking for feeds every 2-3 hours) which is kind of him! Although things didn’t work out as we’d planned I would still recommend Hypnobirthing to anyone and hopefully (!) we’ll be able to use it again if there is a ‘next time’…” Pippa and Joe, Keperra, Brisbane